Mexico’s proposed government decree would require social networks and other digital platforms to detect, report and remove content that directly incites violence. Officials haven’t published a draft or explained how far an executive decree could bind global companies without congressional approval.
The proposal followed a review by the newspaper Reforma, which counted 25 attacks inside schools over 12 years, leaving 16 people dead, including two attackers. Vanguardia republished the count on Saturday, 3 October. Reforma’s figure isn’t an official government total, and the published version doesn’t list every case or specify exact criteria, so independent verification is impossible. It’s also unclear whether incidents just outside school gates were included.
The proposed rules
President Claudia Sheinbaum announced on Friday, 2 October, that a working group led by the Consejería Jurídica, the presidency’s legal counsel, would prepare the measure. The group includes the Security Ministry, the Education Ministry (SEP), the National Intelligence Centre (CNI), Mexico’s civilian intelligence service, and the Agency for Digital Transformation and Telecommunications, which oversees government digital policy.
“There is a part that is the responsibility of the digital platforms,” Sheinbaum said at a morning press conference, according to Contralínea. The government says platforms would have to establish channels for coordination with authorities. Security Minister Omar García Harfuch said platforms should detect, report and remove content in a timely way. Education Minister Mario Delgado said officials wanted a draft ready the following week. He asked how platforms with extensive artificial intelligence and user data could fail to identify such posts in time. Platforms “have to show us that they are safe places for minors,” he said in an Education Ministry statement.
Sheinbaum said experts from UNAM and the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) would help define the content subject to removal. She said officials shouldn’t rush, to avoid censorship. The government has described the aim as prevention, not creation of a new crime; the obligations outlined so far apply to platforms, not individual users.
The attacks and the evidence
The latest attack took place on 1 October at Secondary School No. 13 in Torreón. Two brothers, both adult former pupils, attacked with bladed weapons, killing a member of the school’s leadership and injuring four people, García Harfuch said. According to the Reforma review, it was the fourth attack inside a Mexican school in 2026.
On 30 September, a 13-year-old wounded four people with two knives at a secondary school in Querétaro. Staff restrained him, and Vanguardia reported that all four injured people were out of danger. Querétaro’s chief prosecutor, Víctor Antonio De Jesús, said he would seek an attempted-murder charge, El País reported. Police also found a gun and cartridges among a 13-year-old pupil’s belongings in Hidalgo state on 1 October.
Reforma compiled its total after the Torreón attack. A narrower list that El Universal published and Vanguardia republished identified at least five deadly attacks since 2017, with eight deaths. Most attacks in the broader review targeted teachers or school heads rather than pupils. Over the review’s 12-year span, attackers used weapons ranging from assault rifles to knives, machetes and homemade explosives.
Unsettled authority and prevention
Sheinbaum said investigators had found similarities between Torreón, the recent Querétaro case and other attacks involving contact through social networks. She gave no further details about the Querétaro case or how the attackers had been in contact online. García Harfuch said intelligence monitoring of social networks, messaging services and forums had increased, while stressing that viewing certain content or posting an opinion doesn’t, by itself, mean someone will commit a crime.
No draft decree has been published. Officials haven’t disclosed the definition of content that “directly incites violence,” possible sanctions or the enforcing authority. It’s also unclear how far an executive decree could bind global companies without a law passed by Congress. No publication or entry-into-force date has been given, and Harfuch said work on the decree would start the following week.
Canal N said the proposal resembles rules adopted in the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia and Brazil. Delgado also pointed to measures abroad that limit minors’ access to platforms. Sheinbaum said officials would discuss broader platform regulation later in wider forums.
The government plans to expand its “ABC of Emotions” programme with parent meetings, confidential reporting boxes in schools and guidance for teenagers. In both recent attacks, school staff or local residents held attackers until police arrived. Reforma noted that the wellbeing programme had begun five months earlier, yet the Torreón attack still followed. A year after the CCH Sur attack, students said UNAM’s psychological support plan had lost momentum, the paper added. Officials haven’t set out how they will track school attacks in future.